The Public Services Regulatory Commission of the Republic of Armenia has published the results of the first phase of studies conducted by the Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group in the framework of the agreement on “Providin consulting services for the energy sector regulation for the state needs.”
The study states that the tariff for electricity is the highest in CIS countries. Compared to neighboring Georgia, for example, is twice as expensive. High prices, according to the study, are explained by the fact that although about 70% of the electricity is produced by hydro and nuclear power plants, however, electricity produced at “Hrazdan” TPP is very expensive and just this plant takes a decisive role.
It is also mentioned that ENA has a debt of 23 billion AMD to the power producing stations and if the state compensates the 1/3rd of the debt, it would allow to keep the tariff on the level of 33.9 AMD /kWh. But in this case Armenia’s energy system would have faced the financial crisis and as a result ENA would have to declare default by the end of 2015.
“In result of the analysis we concluded that the distribution of the ANPP’s repair program between the two tariff years, along with loading of the new block of Hrazdan-5 would have allowed to keep the final tariff on the current level. It should be noted that the conventional calculation does not take into account other possible risks, which may affect the price dynamics both in ascending and descending directions,” reads the study.
The complete text of the study in Armenian and Russian languages is available here.
